Behead Speaker! Jayalalithaa has House in splits

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Tamil Nadu Chief minister J. Jayalalithaa on Friday regaled members in the state Assembly, narrating how the practice of the Leader of the House and the Leader of Opposition taking the Speaker-elect to his chair came to be borrowed from the British Parliament — minus the ‘bloody’ part.

Addressing the Assembly after her AIADMK nominee D. Jayakumar was led to the Speaker’s chair by Leader of the House O. Panneerselvam and Leader of the Opposition Vijayakanth, the chief minister said most Indian parliamentary practices were borrowed from the British system.

“In the good old days,” she said, “it required all the strength of the Leader of the House and the Leader of Opposition in the British Parliament to hold the Speaker physically, to prevent him from fleeing from his seat so as to save his head from an angry king.”

The British Speaker was the one assigned the task of carrying the messages between the Crown and the Parliament and often ran into rough weather, Ms Jayalalithaa said. There were many instances of the Parliament turning down some Crown proposal.

It was then left to the Speaker to carry the unsavoury verdict to the king, who in a fit of rage would order that the trembling emissary be beheaded.

“Fearing such a fate would befall him, any Speaker-elect in the British Parliament would take to his heels and was forcibly dragged to his chair by the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition,” the chief minister said.

“But now there is no king in our democracy and no such threat to the Speaker’s life, yet it has become our practice to have the Leader of the House and the Leader of Opposition to hold the Speaker’s hands and lead him to his chair,” said the chief minister.

The House burst into laughter. All party leaders joined her in assuring Speaker Jayakumar that he would receive wholesome support for smooth conduct of the Assembly.